8. Sir Edwin Sandys - Conclusion
Sir Edwin Sandys died in October 1629 aged 68. It seems he died in London as the church of St.Nicholas, situated in the graveyard of Rochester cathedral, has an entry in its register which records that the body of Sir Edwin Sandys was 'carried through' St. Nicholas church, the fee being 16s. 8d.1 No doubt he lay in the church overnight on his final journey from London. He was buried in the
Lady Chapel in the south transept of St. Augustine’s Church
Northbourne; the impressive large standing wall-monument of alabaster
and black marble was erected in his lifetime, as was the custom. Sir
Edwin and his wife are reclining, Edwin in armour and positioned higher
at the back, his wife wearing a robe, and on her head a distinctive
hairband or small cap; both rest on double pillows and have their hands
together in prayer.
The later plaque makes no mention of Lady Katherine Sandys, who outlived her husband by a number of years and died in 1640. I have not come across any reference to the sculptor who carved the memorial. In the 1600s the main centre for monumental work was Southwark in London, although, memorial sculptors elsewhere adopted many of the Southwark styles. It is worth mentioning that other members of the Sandys family have impressive monuments; notably Edwin’s brother Sir Samuel Sandys (1560-1623) who is buried at Wickhamford in Worcestershire along with his son, also Sir Edwin Sandys, who married Katherine’s sister, Penelope Bulkeley, in 1614. So this meant that the Northbourne Sir Edwin had a sister-in-law who married his nephew.2
By 1782 the monument was in a rapid state of decay; Mrs Elizabeth Carter describes it as the ‘sinking memorial of poor Sir Edwin’.3 It was inscribed and restored in 1830 by the Rev Edwin Sandys, albeit with a Latin inscription. Exactly what is original is difficult to determine. The two angels at the back of the monument appear to be 19th century in date. Close examination has revealed a pair of detached gauntleted hands resting in a crevice between the two effigies. So, as might be suggested by their delicate appearance, the present hands are also 19th century.
The
Sandys arms can be seen on top of the monument and also on two shields
at the front. It is likely these were originally painted in the
appropriate colours but, if so, no paint survives today. However, the
colours are included in the heraldic descriptions, so Sandys is: Or a fess dancetty between three cross crosslets fitchy gules, a crescent argent in chief for difference.4 That is to say the background is gold (or), across the middle is a red (gules) zigzag (dancetty). There are three red cross crosslets and the base of each cross crosslet comes to a point (fitchy).
The crescent is silver and added for difference and usually indicates a
second son i.e. it is added to a coat of arms to distinguish one family
member from another. The Sandys arms is quartered with that of the
Rawson family, represented by a tower; the bottom half of the
background is blue, the upper red and the tower silver (Per fess gules and azure a tower argent).
These arms were added around 1464, during the reign of Edward IV, when
William Sandys (c.1439-1496) of Hawkeshead married Margaret, daughter
and co-heiress of William Rawson of Yorkshire. She was also cousin and
heir to Thomas Rawlinson, the Abbott of Furnace Abbey, who held office
from 1440 to 1460.
At
the front, on the left side of the monument, below the effigies, is a
small shield with the arms of the Sandys family and the Hammond family.
This is for Edwin’s eldest son Henry (1605-1640) who married Margaret
the daughter of Sir William Hammond of St Albans Court Nonington.
Although plain alabaster now, its heraldic colours would have been a
background of silver with three black roundels, each with a silver
martlet and three gold escallops on a black chevron, all enclosed by an
engrailed green border (Argent
on a chevron between three roundels sable each charged with a martlet
argent three escallops or, all within a bordure engrailed vert).
On the right there is another shield with the Sandys arms but the right
half is blank. This indicates a Sandys marriage but shows that his
wife’s family did not bear arms, so it was left blank. There must have
been four more originally because Hasted mentions six shields.5
On top of the monument is the achievement (the complete coat of arms
with shield, helm and crest) of the Sandys and Bulkeley families; the
Sandys crest consisting of a griffin displaying its wings as if about
to fly. The heraldic description states the bottom half of the griffin
would have been red, the top gold, with a red crescent on the griffin’s
shoulder (griffin, segreant, per fesse, or and gu).
The Bulkeley crest, a bull’s head issuing from a ducal crown. The right
side of the shield shows Lady Katherine’s family arms, which consisted
of three silver bulls and a silver chevron on a black background (Sable, a chevron between three bulls’ heads caboshed argent) as well as the quartering of 11 others families linked to the Bulkeley family by marriage.
Over the next 240 years or so there are at least 27 burials of Sir Edwin’s descendants and associated family members; the latest appears to be Edwin Sandys Lumsdaine buried 11th July 1871, aged 85. This would seem apt because this is the Rev Edwin Sandys who added the Latin inscription in 1830 and changed his name to Sandys-Lumsdaine.6 However, the church has only two other Sandys family memorials, and these are the two funeral hatchments which can be seen on the west wall of the Lady Chapel. The one on the left is for Edwin Humphrey Sandys (the father of Rev Edwin Sandys), who was buried on 6th May 1831, aged 80. On the right is his 2nd wife Helen (née Chick), buried 3rd May 1833, aged 76.
Notes:
[1] - Edward Hawkins, (1877), 'Notes on Some Monuments in Rochester Cathedral Arch. Cant. xi, 1877, 8.[2] - William Berry, (1830), County Genealogies, Pedigrees of Families in the County of Kent, 42.
[3] - Elizabeth Carter, (1809), A series of Letters between Mrs. Elizabeth Carter and Miss Catherine Talbot from the year 1741-1770 to which are added letters from Mrs. Elizabeth Carter to Mrs. Vesey between the years 1763 and 1787. Ed. Montagu Pennington, 316.
[4] - Peter Summers and John Titterton John (eds), (1985), Hatchments in Britain 5: Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 57. (Kent section by R. Bond).
[5] - Hasted, Edward, (1799), The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, (1st edn) Vol IV. 153 note (k). Of the three missing shields two had just the Sandys arms and the third had the Sandys arms and that of Scrimshaw/Scrimpshaw (a lion rampant within a bordure vaire) which Hasted claimed was incorrect. This would be for Edwin’s daughter, Catherine Sandys, who married Robert Scrimshaw, of the county of Stafford. The illustration with Lord Northbourne’s article in Arch. Cant. xxiv, 1900, 106, shows two shields below the effigies so it seems they were removed prior to 1900.
[6] - Edwin Sandys married Mary Lillias Lumsdaine, the daughter of William Lumsdaine, in 1816 (she died in 1864). On the death of her brother she became heiress of William Lumsdaine and in right of her Edwin assumed, in 1830, the name and arms of Lumsdaine in addition to those of Sandys (Sandys-Lumsdaine). Significantly this was the same year Edwin restored his ancestor’s monument.